Detroit Free Press Rochelle Riley column [Detroit Free Press]

"It absolutely gave me a clearer view," Bolger said in an interview after his daylong visit. "It is one thing to listen to people when they visit us in Lansing. It's quite another to step into the backyard, to climb over a tree, to walk through the tall grass, to enter a house and go into the basement to see how it was stripped. It's totally different."

The visit by Bolger, Speaker Pro Tempore John Walsh and their staffs came the same day that Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr were in federal court trying to convince a judge that a bankruptcy filing is the only way to resolve the city's financial crisis.

Santana and Bolger drove through a half-dozen neighborhoods, occasionally pulling over to talk to strangers on the street. They walked through the abandoned home in Santana's neighborhood and visited a crime-ridden neighborhood where police officers once lived when they were required to reside in Detroit. They stopped by the city's largest park, Rouge Park, and had lunch at Taqueria Mi Pueblo.

Bolger said he was moved by a conversation with a mother dropping off cupcakes for her daughter's birthday at Dixon Elementary, which sits across the street from a string of abandoned and dangerous buildings.

"I'm fueled by this, energized to ensure that we do what's needed to have a successful Detroit," he said. "Everybody wants a better life. As you look at the faces of Detroiters, you see tired eyes, you see frustration. ... But I have no doubt the people of Detroit can make it a success. We have to make sure they have the support that they need."

Santana said he asked Bolger to to come to "see what I wake up to every day and see what my constituents are fighting every day so when you hear me or someone in Lansing advocating for certain things, you're going to be able to see it, touch it, smell it and understand."

"I want you to think about that kid who walks past this every morning and every afternoon and when he gets caught up in a moment of daydreaming, that's what he looks at in terms of his future -- that abandoned, burned-up home," he said. "Why should this community have to tolerate it?"

At day's end, they met with community leaders who were wary and outspoken about the city's greatest problems: high auto insurance rates, heartbreaking crime and rampant blight.

Afterward, Bolger said if the cost of auto insurance keeps people from moving to Detroit and the condition of some neighborhoods keeps people from moving into the neighborhoods, the state should find resources and create laws to help.

The speaker got mixed reviews.

Bryan Ferguson, whose westside home is two streets away from the scene of a recent shooting, wished Bolger luck.

"I think it meant something symbolically," Ferguson said of his visit. "But he's going to tell them what he saw, and they're going to look at him like he's crazy."

Ferguson, head of the Schoolcraft Improvement Association, said he told Bolger: "I'm not naive. You guys could fix some problems overnight, but we can't vote for you. I still have hope, really I do. But I know I've got to have some common sense, too."

Kenyetta Campbell, executive director of the Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance, said the meeting offered some hope.

"I didn't know what to expect, but it was good to have Republicans and Democrats in the room together hearing our issues and talking about assisting and understanding that if Detroit isn't doing well, the state isn't doing well," Campbell said.

Bolger said the biggest surprise during his visit was encountering the level of distrust of state government or politicians.

If he wants that to lessen, then Monday's visit should be only the first -- not the last -- effort to tear down that wall.

"For me, I know I genuinely care about the city of Detroit," he said. "We can't succeed if our biggest city isn't successful."

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